Client Biographies

William Miskey Singerly (1832 - 1898)"William Miskey Singerly, the son of Joseph Singerly, was born in Philadelphia December 27, 1832. Leaving school in 1850, he went into busniess. He entered the management of the Germantown Passenger Railway in 1816, in which he father was a large stockholder. Toward the end of his father's life, William had virtual fianacial control of the railroad. In 1872, he established the "Record Farms" at his century house in Whitpain at Franklinville Gwynedd Station for the purpose of studying advanced horticultural techniques and stock breeding. On June 1, 1877, Singerly gained control of the Philadelphia Record newspaper. He invested in 75 acres of land in Philadelphia's 28th ward where he undertook a real estate development in the late 1880's that involved at first the erection of 800 dwelling units: a number that was intended to increase eventually to 1500. In 1885 he bought that Old Masonic Hall on Chestnut Street which he converted into the Temple Theater and Egyptian Musee. Singerly invested as well in a knitting mill at 8th and Dauphin Streets in Philadelphia and in a gleaner and binder factory at Norristown, Pennsylvania." James Foss, Willis Gaylord Hale and Philadelphia's Rebellion of the Picturesque: 1880-1890. Masters Thesis, Penn State University, 1964. From William Singerly, A Biographical Album of Prominent Pennsylvanians -- First Series (Philadelphia, 1888), 371-378.Link to New York Times obituary of February 28, 1898

William Weightman (1813 - 1904)"William Weightman, chemical manufacturer and, by the early '90s, one of the largest holders of Philadelphia real estate, was born in Waltham, Lincolnshire, on September 30, 1813. He arrived in the U.S. at the age of 16 (1829) on the suggestion of his uncle, the chemist John Farr, founder of the firm of Farr and Kunzi, the first manufacturers of sulphate of quinine in this country. Kunzi retired in 1836, giving Farr the chance to take into partnership Thomas Powers and his nephew and establish the firm of Farr, Powers and Weightman, manufacturing chemists. When Farr dies in 1847, the business became Powers and Weightman, chemical manufacturers. Weightman was repsonsible for the first introduction of quinine into this country and amassed a large fortune through shrewed investments, derived from his manufacturing enterprise.... He died in Philadelphia at the age of 91 on August 25, 1904." James Foss. Willis Gaylord Hale and Philadelphia's Rebellion of the Picturesque: 1880-1890. Masters Thesis, Penn State University, 1964. From Philadelphia - A History of the City and Its People. Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer (Philadelphia, 1911).Link to New York Times obituary of August 26, 1904